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Is It Possible to Add a Pre-existing VMware Datastore to Nutanix in VMFS6 Format?

  • 29 September 2022
  • 4 replies
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If I wanted to migrate from VMware ESXi 6.7 (no vCenter) to Nutanix AHV, is it possible to mount my existing VMFS6 formatted datastore into Nutanix, or would I have to move all the data off temporarily, re-create it in Nutanix, and copy it all back again?

In other words, do I need to buy another 3TB of storage somewhere to temporarily move my data to while I reconfigure the storage array? :)

Sorry if this questions seems simple!

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Best answer by qamarabbas 12 October 2022, 22:00

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Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Best option is to use Nutanix Move Tool for Migrating Workload from VMware to AHV.  

  1. Nutanix Move will Sync VM to AHV and during the Migration phase move will install the VertIO if select automatic migration option. 
  2. Once you initiate the cutover after sync completed
  3. Source VM will be shutdown and NIC will be disconnected
  4. After the final Sync , VM will be power-on on target Cluster.
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

Hi @eku1s 

The recommended way to do so is to install move VM, connect it to your ESXi host and import VM directly. 

Using move, you can update your VM while migrating, so you have the right drivers in place.

Userlevel 5
Badge +6

Yes as Dominix said, use Nutanix Move to migrate VMware VMs to Nutanix Cluster, very smiple.

Userlevel 2
Badge +2

Mounting external storage on Nutanix isn’t supported.  When you create the storage on Nutanix, the CVMs create a  storage pool which is presented to the ESXi cluster as an NFS datastore and optionally can  be presented externally as iSCSI storage.   So Nutanix can provide storage to other clusters via iSCSI, but mounting external datastores doesn’t end well.

If you’re running ESXi on other hardware, use Nutanix Move as others have suggested. It’s a great tool.  You can set up and seed the conversion, and then perform the cutover when you’re ready with an outage that is just slightly longer than a reboot.  Just be sure to install the Nutanix Guest Tools when you set up Nutanix Move to prepare the migration, since you will need the VirtIO drivers once the VM is running in Nutanix. Move provides that  install as part of its functionality, you just have to provide login credentials.  Best of all, if there’s a failure in Move for some reason, just power-down the target VM in Nutanix and power it back up in ESXi.  Works like a champ.  I beleve the process requires a vCenter server that’s running external to the VMware environment, which you can set up on a demo license.

If you’re already running ESXi on Nutanix, and want to switch to AHV,  there’s an in-place conversion process to go  from ESXi to AHV: Converting Cluster (ESXi to AHV)